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The fuel log shows that our 2012 Audi A8 is averaging close to 19mpg. That might not sound spectacular, as it’s barely 1 mpg better than the claimed EPA city mileage, but it makes sense as the A8 spends most of its time surging between traffic lights and stop signs on LA’s surface streets and doesn’t get a lot of freeway time.

That’s a bit of a shame, because the A8 shines as a freeway cruiser. It’s smooth and relaxed — a long-legged luxury sedan capable of devouring the miles with insouciant ease. And quiet efficiency.

I’ve seen a high of 28.4 mpg on the trip computer after a run along the freeway from Los Angeles to Palm Springs. The round trip back to LA, which included an entertaining blast through the mountains that at one point climbed to over 6000 ft, got that number down to a still-respectable 25 mpg.

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You need to be careful with trip computers, though — they can flatter more than Paris Hilton’s acting coach. Checking the A8’s trip computer against actual refills reveals it to be consistently 2 mpg too optimistic. Measured at the pump, the Audi‘s most economical run has been a 507-mile cruise down I-5 from Sacramento that returned 25.4 mpg.

That’s not quite the quoted 28 mpg EPA highway number, but still not bad for a 4402-lb, all-wheel drive luxury car with 372 hp under the hood. Especially for one that’s never driven the way the EPA thinks we should drive – that 25.4 mpg was achieved at an average speed of 70 mph.

Credit the eight-speed automatic. I’ve been testing cars long enough to remember when four-speed autos were a novelty. Now, seven- and eight-speeders are fairly commonplace and ZF has just launched a nine-speed automatic. The reason for the extra ratios, of course, is to smoothen the transition from a first gear that gives you good launch performance to a top gear that has the engine sipping gas at freeway speeds.

Nail the gas away from the lights, and the A8 will get you to 60 mph in 5.1 seconds, the 4.2-liter V-8 delivering a silky surge of top-end bite once the tach needle swings past 4000 rpm. But cruise at 70 mph in eighth and the engine is turning at barely 1700 rpm.

There’s a lot of feverish activity going on in the Audi’s transmission as the on-board computers discuss things like road speed, throttle position, steering angles, and traction coefficients: a constant shuffling of ratios and managing of the torque converter lockup protocols. But driving the A8 is a bit like watching a swan glide serenely across a pond: unless you’re fanning the shifter paddles on the steering wheel, you’re never actually aware of the machinations behind the forward motion.

EPA MPG

Horsepower

2012 Audi A8 News and Reviews

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